Kyle Fong: Shooting Shanghai rock

There's more to Shanghai shutterbug Kyle Fong than a passion for rock and roll and a good eye, and some of it might surprise you. Although an unlikely representative of the Shanghai LGBT scene -- the live music scene is often one of the last bastions of machismo -- Fong's emphasis is on his work, documenting the cities burgeoning rock scene. 

From the beginning

Far from a lifelong live music photographer, Fong came into the profession by chance. He began taking photos at Sichuan's Jiuzhaigou National Park three years ago, and his shots were selected for an exhibition in his native Chengdu. "I was just taking travel photos, for my own enjoyment, and they seemed to like them," says Fong.

With some photography cred behind him, two months later Fong turned his lens east to Shanghai, where he went pro as a freelancer, and happened upon the local live music scene.

Curious about the rock music blaring from Yuyintang livehouse as he passed it one evening on his way home, Fong -- camera in tow -- ducked inside to see what all the fuss was about. The rest is history.

A regular place in front of the stage

"[My bandmates and I] were impressed by how well he represented the feeling of rock music in his photos," says Duck Fight Goose frontman Han Han, who was one of Yuyintang's managing partners when he made the photographer's acquaintance last May. For more than half a year, Han says, Fong would shoot two to three shows per week. 

Eventually, this persistence earned him regular assignments from popular local expat publications -- and a regular place at the front of the new Mao Livehouse stage.

"Working and staying focused at night requires a lot of strength, and he can do it, and do it well," says Jessica Woo, a member of the Mao Livehouse's press team that brought Fong on.

"He also has to be careful not to disturb customers, which is very difficult considering how busy it gets here, but also incredibly important during shows." Woo estimates that he has shot more than 50 shows at the venue since it opened last September.

[My bandmates and I] were impressed by how well he represented the feeling of rock music in his photos

— Han Han, frontman for Duck Fight Goose

Machismo, groupies and grit

Professionally accepted by the live music scene, Fong represents the broader wave of acceptance that has recently come to Shanghai. 

"Gay? No one really cares about me being gay. Most people don't know if I'm gay or not. Although rock music scenes are generally not known for being open, here, if a Shanghai photographer does a good job, people will appreciate his work."

The fact that Western rock culture is synonymous with machismo, (female) groupies and grit, Fong says, is moot in China. "There are not a lot of gay people in Shanghai who enjoy this kind of music, so no one really thinks about if someone's gay or not."

He's likewise unaffected by this heterocentricity as he maps his future. "I want to shoot in the U.K. or the United States -- New York and California," he says. "The first homes of rock."

Giving as much as he can

Not that the present is at all shabby. A recent assignment had him shooting Merrill Beth Nisker, better known by her stage name Peaches. The warm reception the racy singer -- her biggest hit is titled "F*ck the Pain Away" -- received from the audience at Mao Livehouse is perhaps as unlikely as Fong's own.

Similar too, it would appear, is the underlying reason. "She didn't hold anything back. She gave as much as she could to Chinese rock fans, just as I do every time I go out to shoot."